Location: Georgetown and Poteet
When: Early April (Bright week)
Miles traveled: 1562.5!
Grocery store: H-E-B
Price of gas: $3.12
Interest: Juniper trees and road runner bird
High points: Mechanical bull riding!!
Low points: Shoulder pain from seat belt and 2nd tick bite
One thing learned: To focus on the present. Many worries come when our thoughts are not focused on the present task at hand. Returning to this moment, banishes worry and stress.
It's strange to think of me, a smallish town woman from my home state, in TEXAS! It feels like Texas should be a different country, it is so far from home and new. But it does not look radically different; it has trees, city construction delays, rush hours, highway rest stops with storm shelters attached, and thunderstorms. Driving from Arkansas to Oklahoma, the mountain lessened, fields for cattle appeared and I could see farther on the horizon. Driving into Texas, the trees got shorter with more Junipers and fewer pine trees, and more grass lands with beautiful wild flowers appeared. It also seems like I am slowly entering dangerous animal territory. Mississippi had warnings for 2or 3 poisonous snakes, Texas has warnings signs for snakes at every highway rest stop! I wonder what New Mexico and Arizona will bring.
In addition to attending church, I celebrated Easter by weaving a basket out of strips of Juniper bark and campfire toasting peeps! Traditional marshmallows taste better, but I think peeps would make better s'mores as they fully soften much easier than marshmallows. I also discovered I had extended family living in Georgetown! We spent a wonderful evening together and they showed me some of the red poppies the town is known for. Georgetown's Red Poppy Festival is at the end of April and I did not attend. I had my sights on attending a strawberry festival!
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Juniper basket
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Strawberries, at Poteet's Strawberry Festival, cost $7 and only two vendors were selling them. They tasted good, but not good enough to buy a 2nd basket. Many performance stages showcased country bands and comedy acts, but I was only interested in seeing the rodeo. During the rodeo, I watched breakaway calf roping (lassoing a calf and letting go of the rope), a lady riders show (cowgirls riding in various patterns weaving their horses between each other), calf roping (where the calf is lassoed and three legs tied together), musical chairs, mutton busting (little kids bull riding sheep!), bronco horse riding, and bull riding! It was neat! Unfortunately, most of the contestants did not do well; they weren't fast enough, missed at lassoing, or were unable to hold on for the required number of seconds. One bronco rider was awesome (see video below), but none of the bull riders scored points. The heat might of had something to do with the poor performance as it was a very sunny 97°F. I think I applied sunscreen four times in an attempt to not get sunburn! (I succeeded!) Behind the rodeo stands was a mechanical bull!! It was $5 per ride, and I stayed on for ~30 seconds as it started off slow and got faster.
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Bull riding! Started to slip
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Also while in southern Texas; I rotated my tires in 1.5 hours (good arm workout), danced the just-ran-through-a-spider-web dance a couple of times, drove over a snake at 70 mph (did not know what it was until it was too late), saw turtles sunning in the middle of the road, was bitten by a tick, got used to the sounds of Grackle birds (two videos below), watched the sunset, and saw wild turkeys, alligator, and Javelinas.
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Javelinas and wild turkey
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| Alligator |
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Lake sunset
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When the sun sinks below the horizon, the temperature drops from an energy sucking 80° to a comfortable 60°, and the birds have a party. It starts with the wild turkeys. They start gobbling and head to the lake. Then flocks of birds arrive, their wings sounding like a distant airplane. White herons hold council on the lake's dead trees and the grackles are finally no longer irate. Every thicket of reeds holds a cacophony of birds sharing the day's stories before it turns into night. A few frogs add their song. All together it sounds more like the red alert emergency sounds on a spaceship than a tranquil lake at dusk.
The warm orange slice of sky shrinks, and dark blue takes over. A breeze keeps the gnats away, which is a relief as they were persistent at dinner. With a stronger breeze the reeds rattle, sounding perhaps like a rattle snake. One alligator silently appears in the shallows. Birds have stopped singing. The transition from birds to only frog and crickets sounds is smooth and indistinct. The alligator makes a startling loud noise, like built up pressure released in one burst! Stars appear and the temperature keeps dropping. Time to walk back to camp, hopefully avoiding any snakes or scorpions.
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In addition to attending church, I celebrated Easter by weaving a basket out of strips of Juniper bark and campfire toasting peeps! Traditional marshmallows taste better, but I think peeps would make better s'mores as they fully soften much easier than marshmallows. I also discovered I had extended family living in Georgetown! We spent a wonderful evening together and they showed me some of the red poppies the town is known for. Georgetown's Red Poppy Festival is at the end of April and I did not attend. I had my sights on attending a strawberry festival!
